Poikovsky Final - Eljanov Edges Field for Title

Thanks to an 8th-round win and final round draw, GMPavel Eljanov of Ukraine jumped past the field late to take the 14th Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky, Russia. The winner beat tail-ender GM Ivan Cheparinov in the penultimate round, then drew GM Viktor Laznicka in a rook-and-pawn ending to finish with 6/9 in the 10-player round-robin.

The three at the top of the standings all had Black in the final round. Two players could have tied Eljanov with ninth-round wins, but GM Alexander Motylev drew to finish second (5.5/9) and GM Ernesto Inarkiev lost to finish third (5/9).

Eljanov has Cheparinov's number, beating him earlier this year at the Reykjavik Open and several Grand Prix tournaments in recent years. The Bulgarian GM partially salvaged his last-place finish by winning the game of the tournament in the final round (more on that later).

Here is the game that essentially won the title. The three pawns triumphed over the minor piece:

----

----

From there, Eljanov protected his lead by setting up a wall on his board and challenging his rivals on other boards to win as Black. Laznicka broke through, but too many pawns were traded and Eljanov achieved his split point, which was all that was needed for clear first.

----

----

The subplot of the final round was a game that would have normally been overlooked. Cheparinov had already lost four games and could not mathematically climb out of the cellar, so perhaps that caused his king's freewheeling walkabout into GM Emil Sutovsky's camp. The journey on the dark squares will surely remind readers of Short-Timman, 1991.

Help us finish translating:

We are working hard to make Chess.com available in over 70 languages. Check back over the year as we develop the technology to add more, and we will try our best to notify you when your language is ready for translating!